ASBAREZ Online [10-05-2004]

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10/05/2004
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WEBSITE AT <;HTTP:// 1) Armenia, Bulgaria Discuss Closer Ties Amid Growing Trade 2) Exxon Abandons Flagship Azeri Well 3) Rare Arshile Gorky Paintings at Paris Auction 4) Resettlement in Karabagh on the Rise 1) Armenia, Bulgaria Discuss Closer Ties Amid Growing Trade YEREVAN (RFE-RL)--President Robert Kocharian and his visiting Bulgarian counterpart, Georgi Parvanov, pledged on Tuesday to step up cooperation between their nations "in all spheres," singling out bilateral trade that has grown dramatically over the past year. Parvanov arrived in Yerevan late on Monday on a two-day official visit, which is part of his tour of the three South Caucasus states. "The presidents express their determination to promote the deepening of political dialogue and bilateral cooperation in all spheres," the two leaders said in a statement. It said Bulgaria, which is expected to join the European Union by 2007, welcomes Armenia's integration into European structures and in particular its inclusion in the EU's New Neighborhood program. "Our commercial exchange has tripled over the past year," Parvanov announced at a joint news conference with Kocharian. Economic issues dominated his talks with Kocharian. "Both sides noted that since my visit to Bulgaria last, there has been a fairly serious upswing in our bilateral economic relations," Kocharian said. "I believe that the Bulgarian president's visit will also give a serious impetus to that process." He added that the Armenian and Bulgarian governments can build on that progress by doubling or even tripling the current volume of trade. That, according to Parvanov, requires the facilitation of the existing ferry link between Bulgarian and Georgian Black Sea ports. Armenia uses it for trading with Bulgaria and other European countries. The presence of businessmen in the Bulgarian delegation led by Parvanov underscored the economic emphasis of the visit. A special Armenian-Bulgarian business forum was held on that occasion. The two sides discussed regional issues including the unresolved Karabagh conflict, with Kocharian saying that Sofia is contributing to its peaceful resolution in its current capacity as the rotating president of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The Bulgarian government has a special envoy tasked with facilitating the peace process. 2) Exxon Abandons Flagship Azeri Well BAKU (Reuters)--US oil major ExxonMobil's hopes of a big oil strike on its flagship Azeri offshore field faded on Monday after it said it had shut down the first ultradeep well there after failing to find commercial deposits. "We discovered that the first well on Zafar-Mashal does not contain commercial hydrocarbon reserves and we decided to shut it down," Exxon's spokeswoman Leila Rzakuliyeva told Reuters. "It's premature to talk about drilling new wells on the field," she added. At 7,087 meters, the well was the deepest in the Caspian and Azeri geologists have said it was the most expensive too, costing Exxon more than $100 million. The results of drilling on the Zafar-Mashal field had been expected to give a big clue as to whether the Caspian country's shelf contained more significant reserves or whether its potential has been overestimated. Exxon's block is currently the only active new exploration project on the Azeri shelf, despite the existence of over 20 production-sharing agreements between Baku and multinationals. The Azeri oil boom was fueled by the "contract of the century," when a BP-led group agreed 10 years ago to develop three mammoth offshore fields, known as Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG), set to become a major source of crude for a pipeline to Turkey. Oil will start flowing next year with shipments gradually rising to over one million barrels per day. The confirmation of ACG's reserves prompted many experts and Azeri officials to forecast further multi-billion barrel discoveries. But investors have found only one big offshore gas field in the past decade, Shakh-Deniz, while a number of projects were shut down after having failed to strike oil. Many investors have postponed tapping their blocks, partly due to the scarcity of drilling equipment on the land-locked sea. Further gas discoveries will also raise questions about the import capacity of the only potentially attractive neighboring market, Turkey. Exxon leads the $3 billion Zafar-Mashal (Victory Torch) project with a 30 percent interest. State Azeri firm SOCAR holds 50 percent and US ConocoPhillips owns the remaining 20 percent. The block is 100 km (62.114 miles) offshore from Baku. Exxon is involved in four Azeri projects and has already invested around $1.5 billion. One of the projects is a 50/50 PSA with SOCAR on the neighboring Nakhichevan field, where the first well discovered only gas several years ago. Zafar-Mashal is the only Azeri block which was supposed to produce major exploration news this year. After having completed drilling on Zafar-Mashal, Exxon will send a $250-million newly-built Lider platform to Russian oil major LUKOIL, which will operate it closer to the Russian border, with exploration expected to last at least six months. 3) Rare Arshile Gorky Paintings at Paris Auction PARIS (International Press Service)--A major three-day auction sale by François Tajan, who is among the most famous of Paris auctioneers, began in Paris on October 5-7. On sale will be part of the massive private collection of New York art dealer Julien Levy, in whose gallery Arshile Gorky had a number of shows in the 1940s. Among the more than 800 paintings and drawings to be placed on the block are four paintings and eleven drawings by Gorky, a few of which are barely known to the public. The scores of artists whose works are in the sale are: Hans Arp, Dali, Toulouse-Lautrec, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernest, Fini, Lichtenstein, Magritte, Man Ray, Matta, Naguchi, and Tanguy. The highest estimated price for any single item in the sale is a painting by Gorky titled Pirate 1 of 1942, with a suggested price of 1,300,000-1,600,000 euros (close to two million dollars). Pirate II of 1943 is estimated at 1,100,000-1,300,000 euros. Articles in the French press on this major sale have featured Gorky's paintings, emphasizing the rarity of his works on the art market. Marcel Fliess and his son David organized the sale and prepared the massive 515 page large format catalogue, "Hommage à Julien Levy." A couple of years ago, Fliess also had an exhibit and sale in his own Galerie in Paris of Gorky's works from the collection of famous surrealist and a friend of Gorky, André Breton. The auction will take place at the Espace Tajan, 37 rue des Mathurins, 75008 Paris. Information is available by phone (33) 1 53 30 30 30, fax (33) 1 53 30 30 31, or at <; 4) Resettlement in Karabagh on the Rise STEPANAKERT (A1plus)--An estimated 23,000 people have moved to the Mountainous Karabagh Republic (MKR) since 1994, with 150 reconstructed settlements, according to chief of MKR department for refugees, migration, and resettlement Serge Amirkhanyan. He said that 623 people (120 families) moved to MKR in January and February 2004, more than in the same period of 2003. Legislative reforms are also being drafted to resolve the problems of Armenian refugees deported from Azerbaijan in 1988-1992, Amirkhanyan said. 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